Lifted is a 2006 Pixar computer animated short film directed by Gary Rydstrom. This is the first film directed by Rydstrom, a seven-time Academy Award winning sound editor and mixer.

The film was released theatrically with Pixar's Ratatouille (June 29, 2007). The short also received a sneak peek at The 42nd Chicago International Film Festival.^[1]

Plot

A young alien, Stu, is inside a spaceship taking an examination in abduction. He must snatch a sleeping farmer named Ernie under the watchful eye of his imposing instructor, Mr. B.^[2] To accomplish this, Stu must, from memory, utilize the array of thousands of unlabeled toggle switches on the giant console before him. Using the correct switches, Stu must manipulate the tractor beam, lifting the human from his bed, out the window, and into the ship. With a few hesitant flicks of the wrong switch, and eventually a frustrated swipe at the array, he mistakenly propels the human into walls and occasionally the ceiling, but never waking the farmer from his slumber. After repeated failures to successfully lift the human into the ship, Mr. B takes over and, wielding the massive bank of switches with ease, returns the farmer to his bed and cleans up the mess inside the farmhouse.

Ashamed over his failure, Stu starts whimpering, trying to hold back his tears. In a rare moment of compassion, Mr. B generously offers Stu the opportunity to launch the space ship back home. Full of glee, Stu takes hold of the steering apparatus and starts to lift the ship into the air, but the flying saucer plummets to the ground, crushing the farmer's house. When the spaceship finally departs, its underside covered in debris, all that remains is a crater with a tall pillar of dirt in the center, left by the tractor beam's cargo entry, atop which the farmer is still sleeping soundly in his bed.

During the end credits there is the sound of an alarm clock, the farmer waking up, yawning, a loud scream which echoes (meaning he fell in), then a thud.